


Bring the Rain

by futileEditor



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Attempts at being historically acurate, Fluff, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Marauders, Marauders' Era, Mostly G rated fun, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/futileEditor/pseuds/futileEditor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rain Bone is a 14-year-old Army brat who has been moved all over the world since she was three. Having never stayed long enough to be noticed by the wizarding world, Rain's status as a witch was overlooked for a long time, until she moved to England and received a letter inviting her to Hogwarts. There she meets four boys who aspire to teach her the ways of being the greatest prankster in Britain. But she's three years behind her classmates. Will she make it to the end of term?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Letter

 Moving was always hard. Rain knew from experience that every time her step-father was stationed somewhere new, she had to uproot her life and make new friends and go to new schools. She had never lived in one house longer than two years. One of the misfortunes of being an Army brat.

When Rain was very young--so young that she could no longer remember it--she had lived in Toronto, Ontario. Her mother, Lisa, had been born and raised in the city and Rain would have done so too, if not for John. Lisa Bone had met John when the both of them happened to be in Ottawa (Canada’s Capital) on the same weekend. Lisa had been visiting her ex-boyfriend and Rain’s father, Warren, so as to allow him to see Rain as per his visitation rights. While in town, she had stopped into a near by Tim Horton’s to get a coffee before going home, only to run into John Mackenzie who had been there on assignment for the Army. What that assignment was, Rain neither knew nor cared, all she knew was that they had ended up seated at the same booth talking each other’s ears off for hours. They exchanged phone numbers and mailing addresses and kept in touch.

After that, John visited on and off whenever he had any leave until the day he found out Lisa was pregnant. Upon hearing the news, he immediately hopped on a train to Toronto, stopped at the first jewelry store he encountered and bought the nicest ring he could afford, burst into the restaurant where Lisa worked as a waitress and proposed dramatically in front of all the staff and customers. Lisa of course said yes and within three months had moved to Denver, Colorado. That was when Rain was four.

When Rain was nearly six, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland.

When she was eight-and-a-half, they moved to Sacramento, California.

When she was nearly eleven, they moved to Tokyo, Japan. That was during the Vietnam War. She didn’t see John for nearly two years.

When she was thirteen, John was honorably discharged with PTSD and they moved to Marseille, France in an attempt to put distance between him and the war.

Now, at fourteen, with the world looking on in disgust at Americans and their involvement in the war, anyone who knew them in Marseille and knew they were American made their lives miserable. Their house and car had been vandalised so many times it was pointless to scrub off the graffiti that usually read something like “ _cochons américains_ ” meaning “American pigs”. Lisa had finally had enough and decided to move again, this time to Cokeworth, Ilfracombe in England, and told anyone who asked that they were Canadian.

It wasn’t entirely a lie as Lisa and Rain were both Canadian and all four of them including Rain’s little brother, Dustin, could speak at least some French, so it wasn’t a hard sell.

Even so, Rain did not look forward to going to a new school and trying to make new friends all while her old friends moved on with their lives and forgot about her. Her parents and brother all made it look so easy; Lisa got a job as a secretary for some firm that did something presumably dull, John used his Army experience with Jeeps and such to get a job at a local mechanic’s, while Dustin was so friendly and charming that he already got along well with the local children who all gathered at a nearby park during the day.

Rain had no doubt that her family would make friends and adjust to their new lives in no time. Come fall the both of them would be attending Pathfield School, her as a fourth year and Dustin as a first year. Dustin had already met a girl in the park who would be going to their school and though she was two years older than Rain, they seemed to get along well. Rain had no interest in meeting her.

This time, she decided, she wouldn’t even bother making friends. It wasn’t like she was going to stay here very long anyway; it was only a matter of time before they had to move again, so what was the point?

 

* * *

 

“Oh come on,” Dustin whined. “You haven’t been out of the house in weeks! Just come to the park with me, I can introduce you to some of my new friends.”

“What’s the point?” Rain grumbled.

“Ugh! You’re so boring, Rain!”

Dustin stormed out of the house and down the street to the park.

“You should go,” Lisa’s voice came from the kitchen. She poked her head around the corner into the living room where Rain was reading The Hobbit for the billionth time. “You need the fresh air.”

“I don’t feel like making friends right now, mom,” she replied exasperatedly, knowing that’s what she was getting at.

“You don’t have to talk to anyone,” her mother reasoned. “You need to get out of the house for awhile; you’re going to make yourself depressed. Take your book if you want, and read it under a tree. Weather this nice doesn’t last long in England.”

So, to appease her mother, Rain took her book to the park.

It was actually a fairly nice park. There was a small climbing structure on a bed of wood chips and near that was a swing set that was currently occupied by Dustin and another boy around his age apparently trying to see who could swing the highest. All that was separated from a football field by a row of bushes. The field itself was currently empty of any players and beyond it, Rain could see what she thought must be a cricket pitch where several teenage boys were playing. On the other side of the swing set ran a small creek lined with gnarled beech and oak trees. This was where Rain decided she would read her book.

Without pausing to say hi to her brother, she made straight for the shade of a particularly gnarly oak tree, only to find on the other side of its wide trunk two people already occupying the space.

“Watch it!” said one of the people, a young boy about her age with dark hair to his shoulders and a rather prominent nose. “You nearly stepped on my hand!”

“Sorry,” Rain muttered hastily. “I was just looking for a place to read…”

“Well you can’t do it here,” he sneered.

“Come now, be nice,” said the girl to his left. “There’s no need to be so rude.” She also looked about Rain’s age with long red hair tied up in a ponytail.

Rain apologised again and hurried off to find an unoccupied tree.

 

* * *

 

Hours later--Rain wasn’t sure how many-- she heard a high shrill whistle coming from the direction of her house. Without hesitation, she marked her place in her book and got up, heading for home.

Lisa had always had a talent for making herself heard from blocks away, a talent she had inherited from her own mother. Her children knew that if they ever heard that whistle, it meant they had to come home.

Rain crossed paths with Dustin on her way.

“So came after all,” he noted. “I didn’t see you.”

“I was reading under a tree,” she replied tonelessly.

“Boring!”

Dustin always did this when Rain said anything remotely antisocial. It got on her nerves but she never did anything about it.

Rain privately agreed with her little brother; she _was_ boring. She had done nothing but read books for nearly four years, having no interest in people any more. She hadn’t made a single friend since she was ten. In fact, most people thought she was some kind of freak.

Strange things did often happen around Rain.

Once, while living in Japan, Rain had had a huge crush on a boy named Haruki Fujita and had made him homemade chocolates on Valentine’s day as a part of the local tradition, and left them in his desk with a note that said “ _I hope your day is sweet_ ”. Sadly the gift was not well received. Rain’s hiragana was quite poor and was a topic of much ridicule, so despite not putting her name on the note, it was quite clear who had written it.

One month later on White Day, the sweets box was returned with a note that said “ _Your writing stinks_ ”. Inside the box was a steaming pile of dog poop. Everyone laughed and plugged their noses at the smell. Humiliated, Rain burst into tears and suddenly and unexpectedly, the box flew into the air and started spraying its contents all over the students. Rain was miraculously saved from the horror, but from that moment on, her schoolmates would call her “ _akuma_ ” or demon.

Another time, in France, while just learning French, Rain would mispronounce things all the time, but there was one mispronunciation that she would never live down. That was “ _beaucoups_ ” pronounced “bow-coo” however, Rain had mistakenly pronounced it “bow-queue” turning the word into “ _beau cul_ ”. It had happened in the cafeteria. She was trying to tell the lunch lady that she wanted “ _beaucoups des frites_ ” or “lots of fries” but what she had said instead was “ _beau cul des frites_ ” or “nice ass of fries”. The lady had not heard her the first time over the din of the cafeteria and had asked her to repeat herself louder. Rain had ended up shouting “nice ass” nearly at the top of her lungs and everyone turned to stare before bursting out laughing.

It would have been fine if that had been the end of it, but every day she would walk down the halls of her school building and students would call out “ _Beau cul!_ ” as she passed. After awhile it got so irritating that Rain was nearly at the end of her rope. Students who called out to her would often trip and fall seconds after saying it, or else lockers would spontaneously slam open as they walked past causing them to collide painfully with them. The last straw was when someone had tagged her locker with spray paint the words “ _beau cul_ ”, she screamed out loud in anger, frustration, and humiliation, and in that exact moment every single locker in that hallway burst open and ejected its contents everywhere. People started calling her Jinx after that and didn’t want anything to do with her for fear that she was unlucky.

Rain decided that being boring was better than being a jinx or _akuma_. At least boring people get left alone. On the bright side, she spoke English very well and didn’t foresee any language barriers this time around, so there was that.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Rain woke later than the rest of her family and as a result, was right on time for the post to be deposited on the doormat as she came down the stairs. She collected it and went into the kitchen to get some breakfast.

“Mail,” she said shortly to John, handing it over to him.

John sorted the mail into piles as Rain helped herself to some cereal. One pile was for the old residents of the house, another was for Lisa, a third for John, and a fourth for Dustin.

Dustin always got loads of letters from his friends around the world. Somehow it didn’t matter how far away they moved, he always managed to keep in touch.

Rain never got letters, so it was a surprise when John passed one to her as she reached for the milk.

“What’s this?” she asked incredulously.

“A letter, doofus,” said Dustin, opening one of his.

“Who would be writing to me?”

“Perhaps one of your friends from your old school,” John suggested.

“I didn’t have friends at my old school,” Rain retorted.

She turned her attention to the thick envelope in her hand. It looked like it was made of parchment and was sealed with a wax stamp. The impression in the seal was of a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle all surrounding a big letter H. Frowning with curiosity, she opened the letter and read,

 

_Dear Miss Bone,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…_

 

Rain stopped and read the line again, not sure she had read it correctly. Witchcraft and Wizardry? This must be a joke, or a chain letter or something equally stupid. She read on,

 

_We apologise for the lateness of our correspondence and hope that you consider attending come 1 September. A representative of the school will come to your residence to explain the details at noon on 9 August._

 

_Yours sincerely,_

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

 

“This can’t be real!” Rain burst out.

“What is it?” John asked looking up from his morning paper.

She showed him the letter. He frowned thoughtfully as he read and reread the message.

“Odd…” he murmured.

“Let me see!” Dustin cried and snatched the letter from his father. “Witchcraft and Wizardry?” he read. “What a load of _merde_.”

“Dustin!” John scolded him.

“What?” he asked, not looking at all ashamed of his language. “It is! It’s probably just junk mail.”

“Junk mail with a wax seal?” Rain countered.

“Oh if it’s got a wax seal, it _has_ to be real,” he retorted sarcastically. “I suppose you think you’re a witch or something now?”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Children!” John interrupted the bickering. “Enough arguing. Rain, maybe this is a summer school or camp or something. You know like a place to learn magic tricks.”

Rain rolled her eyes. “That sounds like it’s for kids. I’ll pass.”

Without another word on the subject, she dug into her cereal and forgot about the letter.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so this is an edit of a long abandoned story that I originally posted on Fanfiction dot net. The original was riddled with plot holes and historical errors. For example, this story takes place in the 1970's and I had previously wrote in this chapter that Rain had an email when the internet hadn't even been invented yet!   
> So for the sake of historical accuracy, if you see any errors, let me know so I can fix them.


	2. The Visitor

For the next several days, Rain would wake up, eat breakfast, and take her book and a sandwich to the park and read all day until her mother whistled for her return or she finished the book, whichever happened first.

Almost every day that week, she kept seeing the two teens from before under the same tree. They were always chatting quietly or reading side-by-side in amiable silence. The part of her that had not given up on having friends wanted to go over and introduce herself, but the other part that knew she would probably be moving again soon resisted the temptation.

Instead, she contented herself with people-watching whenever she saw the two. She liked to do this in public places; imagining what their lives were like, what their personalities were, what they wanted to grow up to be. She decided that the girl must be an only child and have rich parents with a huge library at home, she wanted to write books and travel the world. The boy was the boy-next-door sort who had grown up as the girl’s neighbor, they were only friends because they had known each other their entire lives. The boy has an older brother who picks on him and teases him for having a crush on the girl. He wants to be an artist but his parents are pressuring him to be a lawyer because artists don’t make enough money.

Rain knew all of this was probably totally wrong, but there was one detail she was almost certain was true; this boy was over the moon for the girl. She could see it in the way he looked at her intently when she spoke and gave her sidelong looks when she wasn’t paying attention. She was equally sure that the girl had no such feelings for the boy, though she obviously enjoyed his company.

Rain managed to forget about her mysterious letter in this manner, distracting herself with the imaginary lives of strangers. That is until the eighth of August, nearly a week after it’s arrival.

It was a Friday and it seemed that meant everyone and their mother had to be at the park. There was a football game in the field and dozens of parents and family members were there to cheer on their children playing while younger children crowded the small park. Thankfully the mud around the creek was deterring anyone from occupying her usual spot. Anyone but the usual pair of young teens, that is.

The two of them usually cease their conversation when Rain comes near and only resume when she is out of earshot, but this time, the sound of the football game must have drowned out her footfalls as she approached and she caught a few snippets of what they were saying.

“Seeing those kids play makes me miss Quidditch,” said the girl absently.

“I didn’t think you liked Quidditch, Lily,” said the boy in a bored tone.

Rain had absolutely no idea what Quidditch could be. Perhaps it was a British sport she wasn’t familiar with, like cricket.

“It’s not so much the sport as it is the company,” Lily replied. “The summers are so boring, I miss my classmates and my lessons…”

The boy snorted. “Trust you to miss the one thing about Hogwarts that no one else would miss.”

Hogwarts? Rain had definitely heard the boy say Hogwarts. It reminded her of her letter inviting her to attend.

“I know you miss them too, Sev,” Lily said teasingly. “Potions and Defence against the Dark Arts in particular, I imagine.”

Rain was suddenly aware that she had been rooted to the spot, eavesdropping on a private conversation for several moments. Though it was hard to walk away at the mention of Hogwarts. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to ask them about the school to get more information on the subject. She stepped forward and cleared her throat timidly.

“Uhm… excuse me?”

The pair looked up suddenly with mixed expressions of surprise, worry, and in the boy’s case, irritation.

“Yes?” Lily asked cautiously.

“I’m sorry for butting in, but did I hear you mention Hogwarts?”

The boy, Sev, narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop, it’s rude,” he snarled.

“I didn’t mean to,” Rain protested. “It’s just that when I was walking by I heard you, and I was just wondering…”

“Well maybe you should mind your own business, Muggle,” he spat.

This made Rain very confused. Was that some kind of insult around here? She had only been living in England for a few weeks and hadn’t really interacted with people much so there was a very real possibility.

“There’s no need to call names,” she stated irritably. “I was just hoping you two could answer a question I had about it.”

Sev went to say something else but Lily placed a hand on his shoulder soothingly and he deflated.

“What question did you have?” she asked with mild reservation.

“It’s just that, last week I received a letter from there inviting me to attend, but there isn’t any information about it. The letter says it’s a school but not much more than that.” She didn’t want to mention the bit about witchcraft and wizardry, it felt too silly.

“You got a letter from Hogwarts?” Lily looked surprised, but Sev scoffed.

“How could you have gotten a letter from Hogwarts?” he sneered. “It’s the nearly the end of the summer holiday and you don’t look remotely like a first year student. Don’t fall for it, Lily, she’s obviously making it up.”

“I am not!” Rain said heatedly.

“Then explain why at your age, you haven’t heard of Hogwarts.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of things you know that I don’t, just as I’m sure there are many things I know that you don’t!”

“Oh yeah, then prove it,” he challenged. “Prove that you really got that letter.”

Rain was really beginning to dislike this boy. “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone! If you don’t want to answer my question, then fine! You don’t have to be a jerk about it!”

And with that, she turned on her heel and stormed off. As she did so, she heard a crack and a splash followed by two exclamations of disgust. Looking over her shoulder, Rain was pleased to see that a branch of their tree had snapped off and fell into the creek, drenching them both with muddy water.

* * *

 

The next morning, Rain thought about her letter and remembered that today was the day that a representative from Hogwarts was supposed to arrive. She collected the post from the doormat on her way to breakfast; nothing of interest in the small pile.

She handed the envelopes to John who was reading the morning paper as usual. He didn’t look up as he seemed to be engrossed in the front page article.

“Something interesting in the news, dad?” Dustin asked noticing the unusual behaviour.

“Hmm?” John looked up as if suddenly realising he was at the breakfast table. “Oh yes, quite interesting! President Nixon has resigned from office.”

“Resigned?” Dustin was quite interested in politics and with his natural charisma, Rain didn’t doubt that he would become a politician himself one day.

Rain didn’t care much for it herself as she tuned out her brother and step-father go on about how Nixon narrowly avoided impeachment by resigning and their speculations on who would replace him. If it was odd for an eleven-year-old to go on and on about politics, no one in her family ever mentioned it.

Dustin was the star of the family, with fantastic grades in history and sociology and economics, he had a promising future as a senator or a governor of something, quite probably back in the States. It was his dearest ambition to become President one day, an ambition heavily endorsed by every extended member of their family.

Rain on the other hand, liked books. That was all she liked. Her favourite kinds of books were of the fantasy variety which was why she had read The Lord of the Rings trilogy more times than she could count. She was also fond of the works of Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the Chronicles of Narnia. No one thought that this sort of aptitude for absorbing books like a sponge was ever going to serve her in later life. Her grandmother would often try to convince her to pick up a more useful hobby, but it never took.

She started fantasising as she ate her breakfast. What if this school really was for witches and wizards in training? Did that mean she could be a witch? She thought back to the conversation she had overheard with Lily and Sev. The way they spoke of Hogwarts made it seem like part of this whole secret world of which the general public wouldn’t know anything.

She let her imagination run wild and found herself daydreaming all the way into midday.

* * *

 

Rain was in the living room reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the umpteeth time when the doorbell rang.

“Who could that be?” her mother asked absently, coming from the kitchen and drying her hands on a dishtowel.

Rain leaped up immediately and tossed her book on the coffee table without bothering to mark her page and ran to the front door ahead of her mother. She couldn’t believe how excited she had worked herself up to be. Hopefully she wouldn’t be disappointed.

She wrenched the door open to see an incredibly bizarre sight.

The man at the door was quite tall and rather old, with a long white beard and hair reaching nearly to his waist, and he was wearing the most peculiar mix of clothes she had ever seen; pinstriped trousers with a green plaid button-down shirt and a brown canvas trench coat. And, despite the pouring rain outside, he was perfectly dry with not a drop of moisture on him.

Rain stared at him unsure. “Uhh… may I help you?” she asked uncertainly.

Lisa came up behind Rain and stared in surprise at the old man’s attire as well.

"Hello," said the odd man. “Is this the home of Rainnina Bone?”

Rain grimaced at the mention of her full name. “Yes… who are you?”

Rain knew this was a bit rude, but the man didn’t seem to mind. He just smiled brightly and said "My name is Albus Dumbledore, I'm the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. May I come in?"

“Of course!” said Lisa graciously, if a bit perplexed. “I had meant to send a letter back to try and find out more information on this school, but I didn’t know the return address.”

She stood aside to allow Dumbledore to enter and closed the door behind him.

“Just what sort of school is this that Rain is being invited to attend?”

Before Dumbledore could answer, John’s voice came floating out of the small study off the hall.

“Lisa, who’s at the door?”

“It’s a man from that school Rain got the letter from,” she replied. “You know the one.”

At this, John exited the study and stood in the hall to greet the guest and at the same moment, Dustin came barreling down the stairs in half of his karate uniform yelling for Lisa.

“Mom! I can’t find my trousers or my belt!”

He stopped short in the middle of the stairs and stared at the oddly dressed man in the entryway.

“Who’s this?” he asked rudely.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore, I'm the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” the man repeated.

“That’s a real place?” Dustin was incredulous.

“Indeed, dear boy,” Dumbledore said with much amusement. “I have come to invite your sister to attend. May we sit?”

Lisa immediately led them all to the living room where they all found seats.

“So what sort of school is Hogwarts, sir?” John asked, getting right down to the matter.

“It is a school for young witches and wizards to learn to perfect their magical talents.”

“You’d don’t mean real magic, though right?” Lisa said sceptically.

“On the contrary, I mean exactly that, Mrs Mackenzie. Rainnina here is a witch, and frankly it is shocking that this has gone on so long that no one has informed you.”

“What do you mean?” Rain asked after making a face at the second use of her full name.

“Well, my dear, most wizarding schools begin teaching their students from the age of eleven or twelve, but I have been informed by the French Ministry for Magic that you have not had this instruction.”

“Wait, hold on,” Rain tried to process. “The French government knew I was a witch and said nothing? Why?”

“From what I have been told, you emigrated to Japan from America where you would have attended school, however the American Magical Government did not inform the Japanese that you would be living there and would need to attend a magical school over there. By the time Japan noticed the odd bursts of magic in a Muggle school, you had moved to France. You are certainly well traveled,” he added with a smile before continuing. “France discovered the oversight only a few weeks ago and informed the British Ministry for Magic, who in turn informed me at Hogwarts.”

Rain’s head spun from the load of information she was just handed. About a hundred questions flew around her head but Dustin got there first.

“What’s a Muggle?” he asked.

“Muggle is the word we wizards use to refer to non magic folk such as yourself,” Dumbledore explained patiently.

“I’ve heard that word before,” Rain remembered suddenly.

“You have?” Lisa said faintly. She looked rather alarmed that this was all happening.

“Yes, in the park” she asserted. “A boy in the park called me a Muggle. I thought it was some kind of British insult.”

“I’m not terribly surprised that you met another wizard nearby,” Dumbledore said thoughtfully. “There are several families nearby with wizarding children around your age, two only just down the street from here.”

“Are there many witches and wizards?” John asked in fascination.

“Many, yes, but there are far more muggles in the world. Only about three percent of the world’s population is magical.”

“What do wizards do?” Dustin asked next.

“Do?” Dumbledore seemed amused and mildly perplexed at the question.

“Yes, do,” he replied impatiently. “Why are there wizards? Why magic? What do they do?”

Dumbledore chuckled at this. “No one has the answer as to why wizards and magic exist, as for what we do, we live our lives, raise families, and earn a living, just like Muggles.”

Rain’s family seemed to be hanging on to everything the stranger was saying, but part of her was skeptical. She felt like she was in a dream or else the victim of a cruel joke.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Rain blurted suddenly.

Everyone stared at her for a moment. She felt her cheeks get hot.

“You will of course want proof,” Dumbledore said with a smile. He then looked around the room as if trying to decide how best to demonstrate his magic. “Dear boy,” he said to Dustin, “do you happen to have a pencil?”

Dustin frowned for a moment before getting up and going into the study. He returned shortly with a pencil in hand.

“Break it in half,” the man instructed.

Dustin did so.

“Now place the pieces on the table.”

He did this too.

“Now,” the man removed a long thin stick from an inside pocket of his coat and pointed it at the two halves of the pencil and muttered “ _Reparo_ ”.

Then, so swiftly that Rain almost missed it, the two halves found each other and knitted themselves seamlessly back together. Her whole family stared in awe at the wizard not quite believing what they had just witnessed but Rain was not staring at the man; she was staring at the wand in his hand.

She suddenly felt something rise in her that she had never felt before. She had never before felt the need to have what another person had, but now that she had seen this demonstration of magic, she knew she needed this in her life. It felt like equal parts anxiety, anticipation, and envy. It made her heart beat rapidly in her chest and her stomach knot itself up.

Dumbledore seemed to notice Rain’s preoccupation with his wand and returned it to it’s pocket. She turned her gaze instead to his face, he looked calculating.

“You will receive a wand of your own when you go to Diagon Alley,” he said pointedly. “Which reminds me; you will be needing this.”

At this he removed a folded piece of parchment from another inside pocket and presented it to her. She took it and unfolded it to read its contents. The page of parchment indicated a list of school supplies and uniform as well as list of books required for that term.

“Now there is another matter that will need to be discussed,” Dumbledore continued. “As Hogwarts isn’t your average secondary school, we are presented with the problem of you being three years behind the other students your age.”

“Three years!” Rain paled at that.

“I’m afraid so,” he looked sympathetic while her parents looked anxious. “However I have two possible solutions. The first is to put you into first year with the eleven-year-old students, this would mean that you would not graduate Hogwarts until you are twenty-one. Or I can put you in fourth year with students your own age and assign tutors to help you catch up, this would mean a great deal extra work for you, however you would graduate on time. I, of course, leave the final decision up to you.”

Rain pondered this for a long while. She could feel her parent's gazes on her as she attempted to make her decision. She looked to them for assistance.

“This is your decision to make, Rain,” John said sympathetically. “It all depends on what you think you can handle.”

Lisa looked worried. Rain thought that her mother must be concerned with the amount of academic strain this would put on her daughter if she chose to attend fourth year and the possible humiliation being in first year would cause.

Rain weighed the pros and cons of each possibility. On the one hand, she could start in first year and attempt to ignore the ridicule of looking like she failed three times. It would be easier on her academically, but she wouldn't graduate on time and be in school an extra three years. On the other hand, she could start in fourth and struggle her way to be equal with the other students. She would probably face ridicule in this scenario as well by being considerably behind her classmates, but she always was good at catching up.

In the end it was the prospect of spending an extra three years in school that made her decision final.

“I think I would prefer to be in fourth year,” she said finally, though with perhaps a bit of uncertainty.

“Very well,” said Dumbledore gently. “But if it becomes too difficult, you can change your mind at any time.”

“That sounds good,” Lisa said with relief.

“With that in mind,” Dumbledore continued, removing another piece of parchment from his coat pocket. “You’ll be needing these books as well. They are the cumulative books for second through fourth year, the first list being only the ones required for first. I assure you that you will have need for every one of them throughout your next term.”

Rain nodded as she looked at the new booklist, and a thought occurred to her.

“Where am I meant to get these books and supplies?” she asked.

“There is a street in London hidden from Muggles called Diagon Alley,” Dumbledore explained. “I will send someone to assist you in your school shopping tomorrow. They will help you convert your Muggle money to wizard gold and help you find the right shops to get your supplies.”

Rain stared in awe at this new information.

“Can I go to Hogwarts too?” Dustin suddenly blurted.

“I’m afraid not,” Dumbledore said gently. “Your sister is a witch, but you are not a wizard. Hogwarts is a school for practicing magic, and sadly you would be very much out of place in such a school.”

Dustin furrowed his brow and looked resentful but didn’t say anything more after that.

Soon after that Dumbledore left and Rain went to her room while Lisa took Dustin to karate practice after finding his belt and trousers in the laundry.

She was looking over her list of school supplies when John knocked on her bedroom door.

“Come in,” she muttered absently.

He entered looking apprehensive.

“What is it?” she asked. John was rarely one for being at a loss for words, so she knew something must be bothering him.

“I was just wondering…” he started hesitantly. “Is this really what you want to do? Go learn magic, I mean? What sort of career would that prepare you for?”

Rain sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Why is everyone always so worried about my career?”

“We just want you to have a good life after school,” he reasoned.

“Who says I can’t have a good life with magic?” she retorted. “Besides books this is the first thing I’ve actually found myself interested in that I think I could actually do with my life. Obviously there are career opportunities in the magical community since Dumbledore mentioned the magical Ministry or whatever, and he’s a teacher so…”

John nodded thoughtfully. “This is what you want then?”

“Yes!” Rain said with a great deal of enthusiasm.

“Alright, I’ll try to convince your mother that this is a good idea then,” he went to leave the room but paused at the door. “I’m going out, is there anything you need?”

“No. Why are you going out?”

“Well if you’re getting school supplies tomorrow, you’re going to need money for that and it seems we’ll need to convert it too so I’m going to have to go to the bank and make sure I take enough out to pay for it all. This stuff won’t come cheap, I can already tell.”

He left the room then and Rain was left to her own musings over what the magical community would look like when she got to see it for herself tomorrow.

 

 


End file.
